Ruling brings end to the age of Wellington's Blanketman

Ben Hana, better known as Blanketman, has spent almost a decade as an icon of the Wellington homeless scene. But, his days are numbered after a judge ordered that he be regarded as a mental health patient, and taken into special care.

Now to be housed within Wellington Hospital, he will not be given access to some of his former luxuries - drink and drugs among them - but will have some of life's more basic amenities, like food and clean clothes.

Hana has been sent for treatment under section 34 of the Mental Health Act. He will remain within the care of a physician until he is declared both mentally and physically fit to be released into the wider world.